Fluid clutch



Nov. 18, 1924. 41,516,005

J. E. FARRELL, JR

FLUID CLUTCH Filed Aufl. 4, 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 .Patented-Nov. 18, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT oEElcE.

JOSEPH EDWARD FARBELL, JR., 0F WASHINGTON, DISTRICTOF COLUMBIA, ASSIGNOR T0 HYDRULIC DEVICES CORPORATION 0F DELAWARE.

FLUID CLUTCH.

Appntien mea August 4, 1920. serial mi. 401,258.

' l'o all whom it may cof/1.061%.i

' Be it known that I, JosErH EDWARD FAR- nnLL, Jr., a citizen of the United States of America, and residing in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, have invented a new and useful-Fluid Clutch, of which the following is a specification.

This invention addresses 1 to a clutch proposition and is not to be con-- sidered as a fluid transmission device and it embodies more particularly two clutch mem- Y Fi 1. Fig. 3 is a section on the line III--III bers, namely, a driving member and a driven member having between them an annular space providing a chamber for a suit'- able fluid, which fluid `is static with refer.- ence to both the driving and driven mem. bers, when the clutch is thrown in, but is propelled through the channel by the driving member when the clutch is thrown out due to the opening of the control valves :iny

the channel.

I also provide means positioned between the driving member and the driven'member for establishing a lock of such a nature that it can be gradually brought into play thereby causing a partial rotation of the driven member and finally .a complete co-ordination of the driving and driven members; in other words I bring abouta complete-lock without the aid of va supplementary positive lock brought into action after the driven unimpeded by intervening mechanical de vices when the clutch is runningfree or doing no ositive work; heretofore in many devices o this nature there has been an unnecessary thrashing about of certainparts of the driven end ofthe mechanism even when the clutch was doing no actual work; these unnecessary parts I eliminate.

`The` chief aims of' my vinvention from a structural standpoint have been simplicity',

strength, and compactness; many fluid clutches have been rendered valueless by ts-elf specifically l great multiplicity of parts, involving some weak spots resulting 1n internal breakages and requiring large sized-units to' effectuallgl arrive at the eiiiciency objective.-

will proceed to more particularly 'describe my invention in connection with the accompanying drawings which form a part l of the specification. In these drawings Fig.

'1 represents a cross-section of my. improved clutch.

Fig.. 2 lis a section on the line II--II Fig. 4 is an end view of my clutch a part l of the casing being broken away; in this figure the clutch is in full operative position.-

In these drawings 1"is onelside of the casing constituting the outer, or driving,

member and 11 is the other side; between these two` sides is a central member 12;

these three arts are secured firmly together i.

by bolts 13 aving at their .inner ends boltheads 14 and at their outer ends nuts 15 A which screw on to the threaded ends 16 of the said bolts and by these instrumen-tali- 10, 11 and 12 is ties the three-part casing held together. This caslng so constructed and Vassembled constitutes the external or driving member of my clutch. This driving member receives its power from any suitable source such as the shaft 17 supported in bearings 18 and having a I I suitable cut-away` lportion 19 in which the key 20 of the member 11 is positioned. This locks the casing 10, .ll and 12 to the driving shaft 17 any other suitable instrumentalities in this respect may be employed, and I only show this as illustrative.

At 21 I show a shaft forming part of the driven member. It is secured to the main es. l

.body 22 of the Said driven member by the I key The driven member is also provi e d with complementary .art 24 which f- I- i iit's over and is firmly secure tothe hub 245 of said part 22.

Parts 22 and 24 wheny brought together as 'I .shown in Figures 2 and 3 constitutewhen properly organized,`and connected up to the 7 shaft 21l by the key 23, the driven member of my clutch. v y Y Positioned in the driven member are four cylindrical cams 26 being mounted in the los three times.

'means the entire central unit is driven member by journals 27 and 28; the lat-ter have gear wheels 29 mounted thereon secured thereto by nuts 30; the gear wheels 29 are xedly secured to the respective cams 26 by these means. When the gear rotates the cam rotates in unison with it.

Positioned on the inside of the central member 12 of the driving member is an interiorly geared ring 31 tixedly secured to and forming a part of the driving member; g it is positioned and arranged to intermesh v with the gear wheels 29 so that vduring the rotation of the driving member to which the ring 31 is ixedly secured the cams 26 will be compelled to turn in unison therewith.

As il have engineered my structure one revolution of the driving member and ring 31 will cause each of the cams 26 to turn round It must be understood of course that while the driving member is turning around and the va1ves,'hereinafter described, are` open the cams 26 though turning around are doing no work; they are moving freely in the oil; that is all.-

'lhe cams 26 are cut away or notched as indicated at 32 and clearly shown in Figures,

1 and t thereby to permit the same to clear the bearing surfaces 33 as the inner and outer casings rotate relatively about each other. lt is pointed out that the bearing surnular oil channel between t e inner and cuter members of the device.

At 34 l show valves; these valves when opened. as shown in Fig 1 adord a free passage for the duid therethrough, but as soon as they are turned they begin to block this passageway and .by shuttingpod the Huid partially or whole'ly block the rotation of the cams, which blocking will compel the gear 31 tov drag the cams bodily in a revolution .around the main center 21 and cause them to gradually abandon their rotary -movein'ent on their own centers 27 and 28. B this riven around and causes the movement in the driv- Y ing member to be im arted to the driven 60'* member to a greater or ess extent and finally to its full extent.

' These valves 34 extend outwardly lin solid form as shown at 35 and are rovided at 36, with a beveled pinion whic 'intermeshes with, and is operated by, a rack 37 mounted on an elbow shaped lever 3 8 swinging at its corner 39 on a pin dwhich latter extends from suitable shoulders t1 on the frame of the driving member.

n The cotter in 42 holds the lever 38 in place. The el ow lever 38 is swiveled at its other end by a pin 43 to a swinging link 44, the latter being suspended by means oi a pin 45 to a ring 46, said ring t6 being mounted in the collar 47, the latter being operated by the lever 48- connected to the collar 47 by the pin 4:9 and hung at 50 on any suitable part 51.

A cap or thimble 52 and a bearing surface y 53 are shown for centering the shaft 21 relative to the outer portion of the driving member, and the thimble 5t is shown in a similar position at the outer end of the valve extension 35.

B manipulating "the lever 48 the clutch 'can e thrown open, that is 'to a dead point, or it can be thrown to partially open, or to an entirely closed and locked position; in the latter position the clutch is workin at 100% eciency and the driving and driven members are going at the same speed.

At 55 is a bearing for the outer end of the shaft 21 and at 56 isa valve for automatically renewing the duid in the central chamber from the peripheral duid reserve chamber 57.

il' claim:

1. A duid clutch device including axially ali ed driving and driven shafts, an outer casing member having an annular interior wall, web members spaced from said wall, an inner rotor member having its eriphery spaced from the annular wall cip the casing member and cooperating with said webs to provide a single continuous annular oil channel, throttle valves interposed in the oil channel, and automatically rotatable cams adapted to project'across the oil channel and l having notches for clearing the said webs.

2.' A duid clutch device including axially arranged driving and driven shafts, a driving housin carried by the driving shaft and rotatable t eiewith, a driven member keyed to the driven shaft and located within said housing and arranged to provide a continuous interior fluid assage-way, a series of relativel thin we s formed with the housing and providing art of the bearinsfp for the periphery` of the driven member said webs being spaced' from the main body ot the housing to provide a part of said continuous passage-way, a series of manually controlled4 valves mounted in the housing at the location of said webs for opening and closing said passage-way, a plurality of rotatable cams carried by the driven member and adapted to block said passage-way at intervals, said cams havin clearance portions for avoidin said we uponrelative and means' for rotating said cams.

rotation of thedriving and driven members, R3@

f3. A Huid clutch device including axially arranged drivin and driven shafts, a driving housing carried by the driving shaft and rotatable therewith, a driven member keyed to the driven shaft and located within said housing and arranged to provide an annular continuous fluid passage-way, a series of relatively thin Webs formed with the housing and bearin against the periphery of the driven mem er, said Webs being spaced from the main body of the housing to provide a part of said continuous passage-Way,

-a series of manually controlled valves mounted .in the housing at the location of said webs for opening and closlng said passageway, a plurality of rotatable cams carried by the driven member and adapted to block said passage-Way at intervals, said cams having clearance portions for avoiding said webs upon the relative rotation of the driving and driven members, gear Whe-els associated with said cams', and a circular rack carried by the housing and engaging said gear Wheels of the cams.

JOSEPH EDWARD FARRELL, JR. 

